CoinMENA

CoinMENA is a regulated digital asset exchange serving the Middle East and North Africa. CoinMENA B.S.C. (c), headquartered in Manama, Bahrain, is licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain as a category-3 crypto asset service provider, while CoinMENA FZE, headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, holds a broker-dealer virtual asset service provider (VASP) licence from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA). The platform lets retail and experienced investors buy, sell, send, receive and store digital assets and deposit or withdraw in local currency.

The product covers spot and limit orders, a custodial wallet with swap functionality, an over-the-counter desk for larger transactions with dedicated account management and preferential pricing, card and bank-transfer funding, and 24/7 bilingual (Arabic/English) support. Fiat support spans BHD, AED, SAR, USD, KWD, OMR, QAR and EGP/EUR depending on channel, with local bank integrations for deposits and withdrawals. Asset coverage is stated as 50+ to 80+ tokens including BTC, ETH, USDT, USDC, XRP, SOL and a broad range of DeFi and layer-1 assets. Mobile apps are distributed via Google Play, where the Android app has surpassed 500,000 downloads.

In December 2025, Paribu, a Türkiye-based digital asset platform, announced it had acquired CoinMENA in a transaction valuing the company at up to USD 240 million, described as Türkiye's largest fintech transaction to date and its first cross-border acquisition of a digital asset platform. CoinMENA continued to announce commercial developments afterwards, including banking and card-issuance partnerships.

Founding story

CoinMENA was founded by Talal Tabbaa and Dina Sam'an; company materials also name Yazan Barghuthi as a co-founder. The company was built to address a gap in easy and safe access to crypto investing in the MENA region. Its Bahrain licence was received from the Central Bank of Bahrain in January 2021, and the platform launched shortly after with five cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. Founding-year references vary across sources, with the acquisition announcement citing 2020 and launch reported in early 2021.

Business model

CoinMENA operates a regulated exchange and brokerage where users trade digital assets against local fiat currencies, monetising through trading fees. It positions its fees as competitive and transparent, and operates an OTC desk offering preferential pricing and reduced fees for large-volume clients.

Trading and brokerage fees on spot and limit orders, plus OTC desk transactions for sizable trades.

Traction

Company materials report more than 1.5 million registered users, 45+ supported countries, over 80 digital assets listed, and more than USD 5 billion transacted. The Android app has over 500,000 downloads. The acquisition announcement cites more than 1.5 million users across 45 countries and access to over 50 cryptocurrencies.

Latest developments

Paribu completed its acquisition of CoinMENA in December 2025, valuing the company at up to USD 240 million and extending Paribu's regulated operations from Türkiye into MENA. Subsequently, CoinMENA announced a strategic card issuance program with INFINIOS (June 2026) and selected Standard Chartered as its banking partner in the UAE (June 2026).